They are the scourge of the suburban grounds keeper: weeds. Lawn weeds can be incredibly annoying, and can make your yard look ratty and overgrown in short order. You’ll want to get rid of these weeds, but sometimes they can be difficult to identify. Today, we’ll look at five of the most common and most annoying lawn weeds.
Hairy Crabgrass
While it’s edible and nutritious, it’s not particularly attractive and quite invasive. Crabgrass is an advantageous weed, fertile and able to sustain itself in drought. It will weaken other grass, it is difficult to kill, and if you don’t get every piece out of the ground, it will continue to regenerate. This is the number one enemy to lawn and garden cultivators throughout the United States, and as a grass, it is difficult to treat with chemicals, as most chemicals that will kill the crabgrass will also kill the grass around it.
Thistle
A familiar scourge in yards, thistle grows deep and can be a true pain to remove. Their root system is thick, and will grow down fairly far. What makes this weed particularly annoying is the part where it loves to fight back. Don’t try to pull thistle with your bare hands, or you’ll end up with some irritated hands and the thistle will still be there in the ground. You’ll want a shovel and a pair of gardening gloves for this weed.
Quack grass
While quack grass – also called couchgrass – may look pretty ugly above the ground, its much worse underneath the surface. Long, thin rhizomes run underneath the soil and will strangle other plants. You need to remove these roots with a garden fork, or else the grass will continue to come back.
Dandelion Weeds
Dandelions have a number of advocates thanks to their numerous uses as food for animals and humans. However, they’re ugly and invasive, and spread like wildfire. The roots grow deep, almost a foot below the surface, and the fluffy seeds get caught in the wind and can blanket a lawn. If you want to eradicate these, you’ll want to do it before the seeds start next year’s crop.
Clover
In some cases, weeds aren’t all that bad. Clover, for instance, is not a bad plant to have around, but is considered a weed by some. We went over the debate whether clover was good or bad in an earlier post, and you’ll have to make that determination for yourself. You can’t deny how common the plant is, though.
